Editorial: We must do better by service members who suffer emotional, mental illnesses

Friday

Apr 11, 2014 at 12:01 AMApr 11, 2014 at 5:01 PM

For many Americans suffering from mental illnesses, their journey is a lonely one. Imagine what it must be for a member of the U.S. military. Their conditioning trains them to be tough, to suck it up when the going gets rough and not to complain.

We got a reminder recent that people who are strong on the outside may be hiding emotional or mental illnesses that without adequate treatment continue to grow and fester. In that sense, the military is not all that different than American society. We lack an understanding of mental illness, and too often the response is to blame it on personal weakness. Consider how that plays out in the military, where everything revolves around strength and resilience.

But even the strongest people can buckle under extreme pressure or exposure to life-threatening conditions, such as in wartime. Many of our service members have had two or more deployments to combat zones as a result of the decadelong wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We may never know what caused Army Spc. Ivan Lopez to open fire at Fort Hood, Texas. He did not serve in combat, but his previous behavior was a red flag. He was evaluated for post-traumatic stress disorder, which has afflicted many of our troops in this drawn-out war. According to government websites, as many as 20 percent of veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan experience PTSD.

Lopez’s rampage again brought to the surface the issue of how the military handles service members with mental illnesses, and on just how much even the experts do not know. This was the second multiple shooting by a service member at Fort Hood in Texas. After Maj. Nidal Hasan killed 13 people and wounded many others at Fort Hood in November 2009, the Army and officials at the Texas base moved to increase the number of mental health professionals and be more cognizant of soldiers in need of help. Hasan was recently sentenced to die for the killings.

Lopez took his own life, meaning we will never know what prompted him to act violently. Those who knew him say there were no real warning signs. Or perhaps they didn’t know what to look for. There is much we don’t know about the human brain. But we do know a lot about troubled people, and one thing we know is that they need to be offered a lifeline.

To their credit, the armed forces have taken seriously the need for more and better qualified counselors, psychiatrists and other mental health professionals, and to better screen service members for signs of possible mental illnesses and emotional stress.

Last week’s shooting is another reminder that those efforts are not enough.

A 20-question test is the basis for diagnosing PTSD. Retired Army Gen. Peter Chiarelli, whose service contributions included attempts to bring PTSD out of the shadows, notes the need for better funding of research into stress-related disorders as a way to improve diagnosis and treatment. That would be a good use of taxpayer dollars. Likewise, the N.C. Department of Veterans Affairs is working to make sure veterans are more aware of and have access to the services they need.

Whether they were for or against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, most Americans believe we should “support our troops.” Better mental health screening and counseling for all service members would be a tangible demonstration of that support.

A version of this editorial originally appeared in the Wilmington Star-News, a Halifax Media Group newspaper.